[70]
Now why is that so, men
of Athens? Because they who
originally ordained these customs, whoever they were, heroes or gods, did not
treat evil fortune with severity, but humanely alleviated its calamities, so far
as they honestly could. All those regulations, so nobly and equitably conceived,
the author of the decree now in question has manifestly infringed, for not a
single shred of them is to be found in his decree.—That is my first
point: here is one tribunal whose written laws and unwritten usages he has
contravened in drafting his decree.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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